GIANT Croatian recently lost to Andy Murray in Wimbledon, who says he's re-evaluating his approach to each tournament.

ANDY MURRAY reached the second round of the Japan Open with a straight-sets win over Ivo Karlovic in his first match since winning the US Open.

Karlovic entered the tournament as a lucky loser after Murray’s scheduled first-round opponent Gael Monfils had withdrawn due to injury.

Murray
had won all four of his previous meetings with the giant Croatian, most
recently in four sets at Wimbledon, and was rarely troubled as he made it five from five.

The 25-year-old said in Japan that winning his first grand slam in New York has seen him re-evaluate his approach to each tournament.

Murray said: “I was so, I don’t want to say obsessed with winning a grand slam, but it was so important to me.

“Sometimes
during the year in certain matches I haven’t done myself justice. I felt after the US Open that I needed to reset some goals.

“I was always focusing on the next grand slam rather than every tournament and every match I played.

“Now I feel like I can hopefully concentrate better, take more responsibility for my performances in every tournament throughout the year.”

The Scot failed to take any of his three break points in the first set but eventually prevailed in a tie-break.

The second set was progressing in a similarly serve-dominated manner until the 10th game when Murray went up
0-40 to set up three match points.

Karlovic saved two, the first with a second-serve ace, but Murray took the third to wrap up a 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 win, having not faced a single break point in the match.

He will face Lukas Lacko in the second round after the Slovakian hammered Spain’s
Albert Ramos 6-0 6-2. Fifth seed Nicolas Almagro was a first-round casualty as Japan’s Tatsuma Ito claimed a notable scalp to delight the Tokyo crowd.

World No.2 Novak Djokovic made ultimately comfortable progress to the China Open second round after being kept on court for three sets against Germany’s Michael Berrer.

The Serbian
cruised through the first set 6-1 but was unable to take any of his three break points in the second before eventually losing it on a tie-break.

He was back to his clinical best in the third, though, breaking twice to seal a 6-1 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 win in just under two hours.

Seventh seed Tommy Haas will play no further part in the tournament, beaten 6-4 4-6 6-2 by Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

Third
seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was initially in difficulties against Denis Istomin, dropping the first set but recovering to win 4-6 6-1 7-6 (7-3).